Losing it all
by N-MK07
Summary: They were once in love, but life got in the way. Can they get back on track?
1. Chapter 1

_**So, this is a new Dramione fanfiction. I felt inspired to start another story as I have a bit of block with my other one. Here's hoping you like this one too! Please R &R! :) x**_

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 **Chapter 1 - The Unexpected Meeting**

" _Please, don't do this," she pleaded with the boy. "You are better than this."_

 _"You don't know who I am, or what I can do," he shouted back at her._

 _"You're wrong, I do know you. I know that deep down this is not what you want, you're only doing this because of your family. Please, stand up for yourself. Find your spine and tell them no," she yelled. Tears were choking her, but she did not let them fall. She would not give him the satisfaction._

 _"I need to. This can't go on. It's over, Hermione," the boy said, his grey eyes locked on her brown, resolve solidifying behind them. He turned on his heel, and left her standing by the tree at the lake. It was such a beautiful day, but Hermione had never felt colder in her life._

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Hermione awoke with a start, with her face, hair and pillow wet from tears. She wondered how long these nightmares would go on for. It had been three years since the battle and since she decided to return to Hogwarts for her final year. It had been two years since that day at the tree by the lake, and she still felt haunted by the words that he said to her that day. He was a different person after the battle; he seemed lighter and freer and it was a sight to behold when he smiled, and she was lucky that she often got to see that. However, she knew that she was playing with fire when they started their secret relationship, but she had never envisioned that she would get burned in the way that she was, and she never thought that the fire would consume her in her sleep on a regular basis. The truth was, she was not over him and she did not think that she ever would be able to get over him – his smile, his smell, his laugh. She shook her head and looked at the empty space beside her in bed and sighed. She had not heard from or seen Draco since that day, although she had read articles written about him in the Daily Prophet, about how well he was doing in the Ministry and how he got married to some pureblood witch. Seeing the moving pictures of him smiling and laughing with his wife could only be compared to being stabbed in the gut, Hermione thought to herself, after she had got out of bed, wiped her face and walked downstairs to see his picture on her copy of the newspaper which had been delivered. It only reinforced that she was never good enough for him, and that she never would be.

She was thankful that whilst they both worked in the Ministry, they worked in completely different departments. She was flourishing in the department for International Magical Cooperation, whilst he was climbing up the ranks in the department for Magical Law Enforcement. It was no surprise really, they were the most intelligent people in their year, both prefects and the Head Boy and Girl when they returned to Hogwarts. McGonagall had been so wonderful to Draco, Hermione remembered, when people were so angry at him being Head Boy. She said that the fact he changed the path he was going down showed great courage and an inner belief in what was right and good, and that made him perfect for the job. They had become so close that year, and Hermione had really thought they had something special, until that day when he left her at the lake.

She shook her head and looked in the mirror. _No time for this nonsense,_ she told herself. She had a big day in front of her and could not afford to be distracted. The department was hosting the International Confederation of Wizards for a conference to discuss ways of adapting to the weak, but non-the-less still present threat of Death Eaters. Even though Voldemort was dead and gone, they could not allow what happened last time, with Death Eaters being able to assemble at the press of a Dark Mark. There was international acknowledgement that legal loopholes had to be closed and Hermione had been given the opportunity to arrange this conference and present possible solutions. She had worked too hard on this to let nightmares of Malfoy or his smile in a picture disarm her thoughts. She quickly ate breakfast, put on her carefully selected outfit for the day and Flooed to the Ministry of Magic.

On arrival to the Ministry, Hermione noticed that the atrium was much busier than usual and to her delight, there were many different languages being spoken. She stopped and smiled to herself. She revelled in this – while she loved learning magical pursuits, another passion of hers was learning languages and she absolutely adored being around people from different countries. Whilst everyone thought after the Battle that Hermione would follow Harry and Ron into the Auror office, she knew that International Magical Cooperation would be a better suit as it fitted both her intelligence in the magical world and her passions from the muggle world, and she was right as she so loved her job. She arrived at the Ministry two hours early to prepare, but the two hours seemed to fizzle away far too quickly, and she still had so much to do. She was running about from office to office, and down to the large room where the conference would be taking place to drop off and pick up large piles of documentation to distribute amongst the delegates. She was making her last trip up to her office to drop off a large pile of extra work that only she was able to do and to quickly touch up her make-up before the start of the conference, when she stopped suddenly at the end of the corridor. There was a familiar figure standing in front of her office door, who looked like he was staring at the name on the door with a smile on his face. The pile of extra work slipped out of her hands on the floor, which made the young man jump and turn around to find the source of the noise. Their eyes locked, grey on brown and the air between them seemed to crackle.

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 _ **I am really excited for you guys to read the next couple of chapters! Hope you enjoyed this one!**_


	2. Chapter 2: Strictly Business

_**So, this is a slightly shorter chapter than I was planning but I will be making it up to you all in the next one, I promise! Hope you enjoy this!**_

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Draco looked at Hermione and took her appearance in. She looked good, healthy and still as beautiful as ever. However, when he looked properly at her face, knowing it like he did, he could see the sequence of different emotions passing over it – shock, pain, sadness, repulsion, anger and it finally settled on indifferent.

"Hermione," Draco offered.

"Stop, Draco. I don't know what you are doing here but right now, you need to go. It's bad enough that you completely broke my heart, and that now I am plagued with seeing your happy, smiling face plastered all over the Daily Prophet with your happy, smiling wife, but what is worse is you turning up here, on what you should and probably do know is one of the most important days of my career. What do you want?" She spat at him. He didn't realise that she was walking towards him until she was right in front of him, mere inches separating them. He was transfixed. When he didn't respond, she repeated herself. "WHAT do you want, Draco?"

"I needed to speak to you about this conference that you're having today, regarding legal loopholes on the laws on ex-Death Eaters."

"Figures," Hermione scoffed. "Here I thought you might be here to offer an apology, but you're just being your usual selfish self."

"May we?" Draco sighed and gestured to her office door. Hermione looked at him with such a penetrating gaze it started to make him feel uncomfortable. She did not say anything for a while, but eventually unlocked her office and left the door open behind her, through which Draco followed. Her office was not the biggest office on the floor, and it was certainly smaller than his, but it was very her. Books everywhere, and the familiar scent of roses and vanilla clung to the room so strongly that it hit him like a brick wall. It had been so long since he had smelled it, and it took him back to the moments they spent together in Hogwarts; in secluded corridors, empty classrooms and the Head Boy and Girl lodgings they were given. It took him back to days of passion, and days of doing nothing but lying in each other's company, talking about the futures that they were guaranteed to have after the Dark Lord's death. Their future, marriage and kids, the lovely house in the country…

"So what do you want to discuss, Draco? I don't have time for this." She said, flatly, interrupting his trip down memory lane. He adjusted himself to his usual business-like demeanour.

"These legal loopholes on ex-Death Eaters freedom that you're wanting to close, I was just wondering if you've given any consideration as to how that will affect people like myself, who were forced into it and who were under duress?"

"I can't say I have given you any consideration, no, Malfoy," Hermione said. Draco noticed the change of tone, she had gone back to referring to him by his last name. "However, this is not something that has been discussed yet and will be discussed at the conference which you are holding me up from. Unfortunately, I don't know what the outcome will be. You ex-Death Eaters conned us before. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice as the saying goes. Now, is that the only reason why you've crawled out of your hole to come and speak to me?" She stared at him, almost daring him to say something else, to apologise for what he had done. His face contorted and showed his frustration.

"You look good Hermione, I'm glad to see you're keeping well," he said, angrily.

"No thanks to you, Malfoy. Don't let the door hit you on your way out," Hermione said as she ushered him out the door. Draco walked through the doorway and the door slammed behind him. He rested his forehead against the door, breathing heavily. On the other side, Hermione slid down the door, the hard mask that she had put on while dealing with Draco crumbling. She felt goosebumps rising on her skin from the electricity in the air. There was no denying that they still had the same intense chemistry pulsing between them, and that he was just as entrancing as ever. _But he didn't apologise. Still as much of an arse,_ Hermione thought.

There came a knock at the door which surprised her. She wiped her tears and opened the door. It was Draco, standing with the pile of work that she had dropped when she saw him. He handed out to her and she grabbed it out of his hand, followed by slamming the door in his face again. It was a quick exchange, but he noticed the redness of her eyes. He had never meant to hurt her. She didn't realise that he had no other option if he wanted to keep her safe. She hated him, but if that is what kept her safe then that would need to be. He was married to another woman, but it was an arranged marriage to protect her. He was not happy, but she looked good and she looked happy until she had seen him. He had saw her in the atrium, smiling, looking completely in her element. And she was. She was succeeding without him and whilst that hurt him, in this case the end would have to justify the means. He rested his forehead on the door again, as if to be as close to Hermione as he could be.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and walked away.


End file.
